Schools alone cannot sort out deprivation

Children need many champions

I don't think there's much doubt that the public view of teachers has changed considerably in the past 10 years - and for the better. More people understand how difficult the job can be and fewer think it's just a soft option with long holidays. Their higher than average pay increases haven't been resented and they are generally a more trusted profession. More people go into teaching, the quality of the profession is better, so more young people achieve the standards that are needed.

That's good news then. But, if there has been a sea change in our view of the teaching profession, there has also been a shift in our attitude towards how society more widely should fulfil its responsibility to the next generation.

We endlessly discuss the difficulties of parenting, the breakdown, or not, of the family, working mothers or stay-at-home mothers. Reducing child poverty is at the top of the political agenda and we increasingly look at the progress of our children as a sign of the health of the nation.

Asbos mean that courts can intervene in how children behave even when their behaviour is not illegal, and parents can be made to attend parenting classes. And we feel a sense of collective failure when we hear of the system letting down a vulnerable or abused child.

In effect, we've moved from looking only to schools to deliver for our children to realising they can't do it by themselves. What happens to a child before the age of five and outside school is important, especially for the most vulnerable children.

Any teacher will tell you that a child starting school without the basics of language will find it almost impossible to catch up and if agencies that are supposed to be helping children let them down, then that affects how they do at school.

The government has done a lot to try to coordinate education and other support for children. From Sure Start to community nurseries, breakfast clubs to extended schools, it's all about making sure children get the right support at the right time, from the right person, in the easiest way.

So, instead of teachers being the only focus, early years staff, social workers, care assistants, youth workers and the rest come under the spotlight too. But whereas we've accepted that those who work in schools - teachers and teaching assistants - need to be trained to a higher level and paid more, there's still a job to be done for the rest of the 4 million people who work with children.

No one now questions that the quality of early years education is crucial for a child, yet while roughly 80% of those working in schools have a degree, 80% of those working with the under-fives don't have one. Staff turnover is high, and pay low. We know a good social worker can make all the difference, and failure can lead to disaster, yet social work is only just becoming an all-graduate profession. Social workers' pay is lower than teachers' and vacancies - almost 20% in some London boroughs - more than six times the teacher vacancy rate.

So what's the lesson? It has to be that if we want to improve the status and recruitment of all those who work with children, we must make a similar level of investment and provide a similar degree of training to that which exists in schools.

The intention is there in the government's Every Child Matters agenda and there's commitment from ministers. But there's no cheap way to do this.

We've accepted the evidence that it takes more than a good school to deliver a good education. And, although we should be pleased at the improvement in the status and quality of teachers, we can't stop until we can say the same for everyone to whom we entrust the wellbeing of our children.

Estelle Morris
27 March 2007

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/comment/story/0,,2043222,00.html

home / Previous feature